Sonipat & Sonipat City also spelled as Sonepat,[1] (founded as Swarnaprastha or Suvarnaprastha by the five Pandava brothers during the times of Mahabharata war) is a town and a Municipal Corporation in Haryana state of India. It comes under the National Capital Region and is around 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Delhi. It is also around 214 km(128 miles) southwest of Chandigarh, the state capital. The Yamuna River runs along the eastern boundary.According to legend, Sonipat was earlier known as Sonprastha, which later on became 'Svarnaprastha' (, lit. golden city). Later, the name Svarnaprastha changed into Svarnpath, and then to its current form, Sonipat/Sonepat.Reference to the city comes in the epic Mahabharata, Sonipat was founded as Swarnaprastha by the five Pandava brothers. It was one of the five prasthas or towns demanded by Yudhishthira as the price of peace from Duryodhana and in lieu of the kingdom of Hastinapur. The other four villages were Panprastha (Panipat), Baghprastha (Baghpat), Tilprastha (Tilpat) and Indraprastha. Another legend ascribed it to Raja Soni, the thirteenth descendent of Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers. Khanda, Sonipat village is very ancient village in Sonipat. Though both are without supporting evidence but it had been noted much earlier by the grammarian Pini in his celebrated sutra-style treatise on Sanskrit grammar Ashtadhyayi. The town was therefore already in existence before 600 B.C.There are several Mughal buildings on the outskirts of the city, including the Mosque of Abdullah Nasir-ud-din, who was a descendant from Mushid of Iran. The main water system in the district is the Yamuna River and the irrigation canals flowing out of it. The river flows besides the rural belt in the eastern side of district. It also acts as a natural boundary between the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
